War and Genocide in South Sudan

by Clémence Pinaud

Overview

Using more than a decade's worth of fieldwork in South Sudan, Clémence Pinaud here explores the relationship between predatory wealth accumulation, state formation, and a form of racism—extreme ethnic group entitlement—that has the potential to result in genocide.

War and Genocide in South Sudan traces the rise of a predatory state during civil war in southern Sudan and its transformation into a violent Dinka ethnocracy after the region's formal independence. That new state, Pinaud argues, waged genocide against non-Dinka civilians in 2013-2017.

During a civil war that wrecked the region between 1983 and 2005, the predominantly Dinka Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) practiced ethnically exclusive and predatory wealth accumulation. Its actions fostered extreme group entitlement and profoundly shaped the rebel state. Ethnic group entitlement eventually grew into an ideology of ethnic supremacy.

After that war ended, the semi-autonomous state turned into a violent and predatory ethnocracy—a process accelerated by independence in 2011. The rise of exclusionary nationalism, a new security landscape, and inter-ethnic political competition contributed to the start of a new round of civil war in 2013, in which the recently founded state unleashed violence against nearly all non-Dinka ethnic groups. Pinaud investigates three campaigns waged by the South Sudan government in 2013–2017 and concludes they were genocidal—they sought to destroy non-Dinka target groups. She demonstrates how the perpetrators' sense of group entitlement culminated in land-grabs that amounted to a genocidal conquest echoing the imperialist origins of modern genocides.

Thanks to generous funding from TOME, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501753015
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	330
Sales rank:	60,592
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Clémence Pinaud is Assistant Professor at Indiana University. Follow her on X @ClemencePinaud.

Table of Contents

From Predation to Genocide
1. From the Turkiyya to the Second Civil War: 1820–1983
2. The SPLA and the Making of an Ethnic Dinka Army: 1983–2005
3. The War Economy and State-Making in SPLA Areas: 1983–2005
4. SPLA Violence, Group-Making, and Expansion: 1983–2005
5. Nationalism, Predation, and Ethnic Ranking: 2005–13
6. The Making of a Violent Ethnocracy: 2005–13
7. Civil War and the First Genocidal Phase: December 2013
8. The Second Phase of the Genocide in Unity State: 2014–15
9. The Third Phase of the Genocide in Equatoria: 2015–17
Ethnic Supremacy and Genocidal Conquest

What People are Saying About This

Scott Straus

Pinaud does an excellent job at documenting the violence on South Sudan and casting such a critical eye on the SPLA, especially from the ground up. War and Genocide in South Sudan is full of original and unique material that is powerful and compelling.

Will Reno

War and Genocide in South Sudan is a deeply researched, rich and fascinating book about a troubling subject, and makes significant contributions to the field.

Editorial Reviews

A deeply researched, arresting, and often brutal account of civil war in South Sudan, the violent events of which Pinaud argues constitute genocide. Based on 550 interviews across a range of locations, it is the detailed, first-person accounts of people's experiences of the war that brings the intimate experience of violence into sharp, and often brutal, relief. Required reading for the many people who care about South Sudan and its future.

Global Responsibility to Protect

Clemence Pinaud's book, War and Genocide in South Sudan, is one of the few books on South Sudan that attaches importance to oral tradition as a means for reconstructing unwritten history. War and Genocide in South Sudan adds to the historiography on a range of topics relative to the Sudan: war, conflict, the politics of liberation, the economy, and genocide. Future scholars who wish to write about the Second and Third Civil Wars will start from where Pinaud's research stops.

H-Diplo

Pinaud's approach is clear-eyed and systematic. She walks a careful line, avoiding oversimplifications that would characterize the war as an 'ethnic' conflict while demonstrating the central role that instrumentalized ethnicity played in fomenting and prosecuting events and is nuanced in her analysis of the various factions. Pinaud's book will be essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the roots of the present South Sudanese conflict; it also makes a significant contribution to sociological understanding of the political formation of mass atrocity.

International Affairs